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Sweep 22 Sep 2026 · 17:19Z Build v2.1.280 501 read Stable v2.1.267 Latest v2.1.280 Next v2.1.280 Feeds RSS JSON llms.txt Unofficial
Claude Code v2.1.274 ·

Startup failures are now reported as structured JSON in stream-json/SDK mode

CLI startup failures can now be reported as structured JSON results for SDK and programmatic callers, not just printed to stderr

TierUnder the hoodhow much it should matter to you
Useful1my rating, 1 to 5
Signal1worth watching, 1 to 5
AreaHeadless Modewhat it touches
KindImprovementsin v2.1.274,
Group of 5 Under the hood No documentation found

CLI startup failures can now be reported as structured JSON results for SDK and programmatic callers, not just printed to stderr

What

  • When Claude Code fails to start (for example: the CLI is too old for the workspace/server, no usable shell tool is found on Windows, proxy configuration is invalid, or another process already holds the session) and is running with --output-format stream-json, it can now emit a structured result message on stdout carrying a machine-readable reason, in addition to (or instead of) the usual stderr text.
  • This reason is carried in a new startup_failure_reason field, with values seen including cli_version_too_old, shell_tool_missing, proxy_invalid, and session_held_by_background.
  • This behavior requires both --output-format stream-json and the environment variable CLAUDE_CODE_STARTUP_FAILURE_RESULTS to be set; the emitting function checks for the env var before doing anything.

Why This lets SDK and other programmatic callers detect exactly why a headless Claude Code process failed to start by parsing structured output, instead of having to scrape human-readable stderr text.

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Names in the bundlestartupFailureReason

See this entry in the whole of v2.1.274 →

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